Last week we began a journey. The lectionary readings, which are the schedule of our scriptures for this season, follow the gospel of Luke. Last week’s text from Luke chapter 9 was the beginning of the Lukan travel narrative, Jesus’ winding, wandering journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Last week we saw how resolute, how determined Jesus was when he set his face to go up to Jerusalem, and we saw how we, like Jesus, are called to have extravagant hope in the kingdom of God. Today we continue the journey in Luke chapter 10. As Mary read this morning, Jesus has appointed seventy people to go ahead of him in pairs to all the towns that he will travel to in the coming weeks and months. His commission is simple: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.

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We have gathered today from many different places in our minds and our emotions. For some of us, it has been a normal week, and for some of us, the week has been full of emotion, fear, and anxiety. This morning all of us together make up the church. No matter where we come from or what we bring to this sacred space, let us be one in spirit now as we enter into the preaching of the Word. When I worked as a chaplain at a hospital a couple of year ago, I would often carry a Bible as I made my visits. There were some days when I wouldn’t use it at all as I walked up and down the hallways of the hospital visiting with nurses and patients and loved ones. Then there were days when my visits simply could not include words, when the only thing I could offer was my presence as a pastor. And there were other days when it felt like the Bible was all I had to use, when it provided the only words that were appropriate:

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